13 to 14 October 1806
Davout on the road to Kösen
On 13 October the Prussian main army under the Duke of Brunswick, about 64,000 men, leaves Weimar for the Saale crossings at Kösen and Freyburg. King Frederick William III and Field Marshals Möllendorf and Kalckreuth march with it. Friedrich Wilhelm von Schmettau’s division leads, with orders to block the pass at Kösen.
Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout, copy by Tito Marzocchi de Bellucci after Pierre-Claude Gautherot, 1852Wikimedia Commons, After Pierre-Claude Gautherot / Tito Marzocchi de Bellucci, Public domain (Louis nicolas davout.jpg)
Davout’s III Corps, about 26,000 men in the divisions of Gudin, Friant and Morand, is at Naumburg with Bernadotte’s I Corps. A note from Berthier tells Davout to march on Apolda and adds that Bernadotte may come with him, but that the Emperor hopes Bernadotte will be at Dornburg. Davout passes it on at 4 a.m., and Bernadotte, keeping to his last written orders, sets out for Dornburg. Davout marches alone.
Gudin’s division leaves Naumburg before 6.30 a.m., crosses the Saale at Kösen and climbs onto the plateau in heavy fog. At 7 a.m. its leading regiment, the 1st Chasseurs, runs into Prussian cavalry and guns outside Poppel just as the fog lifts. Davout orders Gudin to deploy at Hassenhausen.
Sources
- John Gallaher, The Iron Marshal: A Biography of Louis N. Davout (2018).
- F. Loraine Petre, Napoleon’s Conquest of Prussia 1806 (1907).
- David G. Chandler, The Campaigns of Napoleon (1966).
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